Just Another Adventure
by Fair-Ithil
Summary: They’d dream up adventures together. Wild ones that involved trolls and dragons, elves and ents, hidden treasures and secret conspiracies, those were the kinds that filled their minds, their dreams. Pippin goes over the adventures of his life.


A/N: I wanted to try something new. I've always loved Pippin and I was watching the movie the other day and I thought he was a great place to start. This is a mix of movie and book and I didn't pick either movie!Pippin or book!Pippin so I tried to mix the two as well, hopefully I did an alright job of it. What do you think? Good? Bad? Silly? Please review. No flames.

Disclaimer--Nope, don't own it (yet...cackle)

When he was younger he used to dream of adventure.

His cousin Merry and he would go out into some of the nearby woods and sleep out under the stars. They'd dream up adventures together. Wild ones that involved trolls and dragons, elves and ents, hidden treasures and secret conspiracies; those were the kinds that filled their minds, their dreams.

Once when he was young, perhaps fourteen, he went to a party with his family, they traveled all the way to Hobbition and they spent the night in tents and it was one of the closest things he got to an adventure in his early youth. But one of the best for a long time coming, he got to visit his relatives and saw fireworks and a wizard, a real wizard. It was a gathering to be talked about for ages and he would in no short time forget it himself.

It would be fifteen years later that he got his chance, his golden opportunity and he seized it with the eagerness that he would a mushroom. And there was a conspiracy and a jolly fellow with a large hat and it was exciting. Frightening what with the Black Riders but he was fairly certain nothing too bad could happen to them. But their little adventure spun out of control and before he knew it he was a knight of Gondor, in service to a mad man. He'd watched a trusted friend fall in battle, he and Merry had been taken captive by Uruk-hai, scarred and taunted before escaping to the hands, limbs, of ents. He'd seen things he never dreamed of seeing even in the most haunting nightmare or blissful dream, and more often than not he wished to be back home, safe and sound.

And then the end came and his wish was fulfilled, he returned to his homeland where peace surely awaited him. But peace was hard to come by he'd learned, and the once smothering peace of his lovely Shire was broken. Fire and foes engulfed it and once they'd gathered the forces and purged the land of the evil that held it by the throat there was still much work to do. And once the bulk of the work was seemingly done or at least started, there was finally time to sit and think. But thinking was not always the best thing, and there were times when he cursed himself for ever going along with the whole thing.

Adventures it seemed for a time were rather overrated, but then he realized that everything happened for a reason and that things might have been very different indeed had he not tagged along.

And for a time things were quiet. Or as quiet as he allow them to be, he and Merry found no shame in enjoying life to its fullest, or it's loudest.

Yet there was a part of him, deep down inside that he knew was no more. All romantic notions of adventures were gone from his dreams replaced by visions of slaughtered companions in the heat of battle, the pain of being trapped beneath a troll believing death had at last caught up him, and the sound of men far braver than he screaming from terror in the shadow of foul beast. The heads of dead men falling from the sky, fire that could not be quenched, fellow hobbits being oppressed by hobbit and ruffians alike. Not all his dreams were a subject of terror but too many nights did he wake in cold sweat, after tossing and turning until Merry finally came to his aid.

And many years would pass and he'd have to bid farewell to many, beginning with a cousin who'd been through more than one should, and a wizard who behind his rough exterior had a wise and gentle heart. And though it saddened him greatly to bid them farewell he lived still. He would marry a wonderful lass and she bore him a son. And he was happy in his home, with his family. And as his little one grew, he took to sitting on his knee and listening to tales of what had taken place during the Great War. And he too got ideas of adventures and grandeur in his mind, but Pippin could not bring himself to be one to but an end to them, though in his heart he wished they would not be ended in a fashion such as his own had been.

So his little one dreamed and when he was old enough he left the Shire and saw the world with his father, who had forgotten the wonder of the open road and found himself wishing he could do it more often. But his heart had settled and no matter how much he loved the White City and those he saw again, his heart remained in his hobbit hole with his merry lass. And he knew that he wouldn't trade her or his son for any adventure in the world. But time passed and things changed, for he had learned that nothing ever truly stopped changing, and his diamond passed away, and he came to know a new sort of grief. He knew than that his time had passed.

His son became Thain and he bid the Shire farewell one more time, save that this time as he and Merry rode out of their land there was no thought of return. It was the beginning of his last adventure.

They journeyed to the land of the horse lords and visited with old friends who they had not seen in ages. They saw how flaxen hair had turned white, raven hair had gone gray, brilliant eyes had dulled. Only the face of a Queen and a Prince remained unlined by age but the sorrow in their eyes had grown.

Time passed and a golden fall was on them when black hangings adorned the Golden Hall in respect of the king's passing. They lingered for a time in the Mark before traveling to the White City. They stayed there for all that was left of their lives in its great halls in comfort. He wrote home often, and thought of it more often then not. Then the time came for him to bid his beloved cousin good bye and it was one of the hardest things to do. The day was spent in silence, and it was not 'til sun down that they dared to break it.

"Merry?"

"Yes Pip."

"I won't be far behind."

"No, I wouldn't expect you to stay too long. You were never a patient person after all."

"Did I ever tell you what Gandalf told me? About death?"

"You have but my tired mind can't recall right at this moment."

"He said death wasn't the end. It was just the next step." He moved to hold his cousins fragile hand.

"I am not frightened Peregrin." Merry gave his hand a squeeze and a weak smile.

"No of course not. Neither am I. I've been in the mood for an adventure."

End.


End file.
